Doctor Genevieve Lenard

Genevieve has high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. For reasons explained in The Gauguin Connection she studied psychology and specialised in nonverbal communication and behaviour. Here are some of the things relevant to her life that you might find interesting:

Autism Spectrum Disorder

This is a term used for a very complex set of disorders connected to brain development. Recently, it has becoming more widely known through the media and entertainment outlets. More books, tv-shows and movies are using high functioning autistic people as protagonists, which is great! It is removing stigmas attached and also helping us understand this disorder a little better. Yet there is so much not known about ASD, so a lot more research and education needed.

Art Crimes

Trafficing in drugs and arms are the top two criminal activities in the world. Art crimes are third. According to the ARCA website, this criminal activity grosses $2-6 billion a year. Shocking. It is easy to think this is a victimless crime, but it would be far from the truth. Most of this money is used to fund other criminal activities, most often drugs and arms. It is said that criminal syndicates are finding it increasingly difficult to do financial transactions with developing technology, tracking, inter-agency co-operation and changing laws in off-shore banking. Payment made in art has become a popular alternative to cash transactions or bank transfers.

Insurance Fraud

This is known as the high reward, low risk crime. Billions of dollars are lost each year to fraudulent insurance claims. Top of the list in the US is some form of medical care fraud. Up to $60 billion dollars fall through the cracks with patients and medical professionals abusing and misusing the system. At the end of the day the tax payers are the real victims. Staged auto accidents also push up the statistics to a staggering level. Fraudulent arson cases are also high on the list.Insurance companies have specialised software to pick up on claims that are suspicious. They also have teams working to ensure that their other clients don't have to pay for the crimes of a few. This is where Genevieve fits in. Her uncanny ability to notice patterns in mountains of data has saved her company, a high-end insurer, millions in the few years that she's been working there. Most of this work would be considered extremely boring, but we are lucky to only be part of the more exciting cases Genevieve works on.

Nonverbal Communication (Body Language)

Experts (and non-experts) like to throw around all kinds of statistics. Only 7% of our communication is with words being a statistic used the most often. I love statistics and love even more creating some, but in this instance I will refrain from referring to any statistics. In my research for Genevieve’s adventures I came across a lot of different statistics, some contradictory. The bottom line is that the message we send nonverbally is much stronger than the words being used.

Body language can never be read as one isolated cue. In other words: a frown is just a contraction of muscles until you read the cluster of cues to give you the full message. That frown might indicate disagreement, worry, concentration, sadness, anger, pain or sharp light because you forgot your sunglasses in the office. Adding all the cues together is part of the fun, but will insure a more accurate read. It all needs to be taken together in context.

That being said, I jotted down some interesting (and fun!) points while doing my research and will share it with you.

Hands:(I’m a huge ‘hand talker’. There must be a strong Italian branch somewhere in my family tree)

o To tell the person’s dominant hand, just watch when he is making a point. A right-handed person will use his right hand to count off the points, a left-handed person his left hand.

o Hand Steepling. This is when your fingertips touch, forming a steeple. The fingers sometimes ‘rock’ back and forth making it look like a spider doing push-ups. This is one of the most powerful displays of self-confidence. Steepling shows that you are confident in what you are saying and in your position. It could, however, come across are superior, so be careful.

o Thumbs:

If you are hiding your thumbs it usually indicates low confidence (in what you are saying, the situation or in yourself). It could also show social discomfort, low status or insecurity. Examples: putting your thumbs in your trouser pockets, holding your thumbs in a fist or tucking your thumbs under your open palms.

But… if you show your thumbs, it gives a positive signal. Hands in pockets with only the thumbs showing; a woman holding the strap of her handbag with her thumb pointing upwards; clutching a phone, pen, book, anything with your thumb visible and pointing up shows high confidence. It is also associated with high status.

o Hand wringing: It is usually done to pacify yourself in a stressful situation or environment. This can show as wringing your hands, interlacing your fingers or clenching your hands together. All these communicate that you are not confident or that you find a comment, situation or person stressful.

o Touching your neck: It is something we all do, and we do it often. Sometimes we touch our throats, but usually it is a strong singular neck-rub. This happens when you are experiencing stress or are low on confidence. It does not necessarily indicate deception. When your hand reaches for your neck, your brain is usually busy working through some input that might be uncomfortable, questionable, doubtful, threatening or emotional.

Smiles:

How do you see the difference between a fake smile and a real smile? Well, we use fake smiles in social situations very often. It’s part of being polite, being diplomatic and being nice to your aunt Theresa! The simplest way to recognise a real smile is to watch for the direction of the corners of the mouth.In a genuine smile, the corners of your mouth will stretch upwards to your cheekbones. Those muscles work together with your eye muscles which will cause crow’s feet at the outer edges of your eyes. A false smile, on the other hand, will stretch the corners of your mouth sideways. There will also be very little to no emotion in the eyes.

Lips:

o Disappearing lips: This usually shows that you are stressed or anxious. Pressing your lips together indicates that you are worried or that something is wrong.

o Turned-down corners of the mouth: If you see someone whose mouth is an upside down U shape, that person is really distressed or grieving, confidence is low and concern is high. This is not an easy expression to emulate unless driven by strong emotion.

o Lip purse: When you are chatting to your friends and someone is pursing his lips, he’s not in agreement with you or he is thinking about an alternative to your argument.

o Sneer: The lips compress slightly and the corners of your mouth are drawn sideways, towards your ears. You most definitely do not have a lot of respect for the person speaking to you and/or have strong feelings of contempt.

Blocking:

This is something we do when we want to shut out an unpleasantness. Whether it is a person, a situation, a confrontation or a scene in a movie. The blocking behaviour could be as simple as closing your eyes, lifting your hand in front of your eyes, covering your face with both hands or rubbing your eyes. Crossing your arms is a classic form of blocking behaviour as is crossing your leg so that your thigh become a barrier between you and the unpleasant person or situation.Keep in mind that a woman can block her torso by crossing one or both arms, not necessarily because she wants to block you out. Maybe she doesn’t want you to notice the extra rolls she acquired after her holiday. It's always about reading cues within context.

The Torso:

​​o We lean towards each other when we are comfortable with each other. It exposes your most vulnerable parts (the throat, chest, intestines) which in turn implies trust. The more we trust, the closer we will lean and the more we will expose ourselves to that person.

o We lean away from people we feel uncomfortable with. You might be standing rather close to someone, but there will be a slight leaning in the opposite direction if you find that person obnoxious, dangerous, rude, threatening, aggressive, etc. The stronger the feeling, the further away we’ll move. Blocking behaviour often goes hand in hand with this.

o Puffing out your chest often happens before you strike out at someone. It does not have to be the physical strike of a drunkard in a bar brawl. It might be a verbal strike.

o Shoulders that move up and towards the ears and ‘curl’ the torso into itself show that you are feeling insecure, weak and are experiencing negative emotions. This will often be accompanied by the self-hug – both arms covering the torso, giving comfort and protection.

These sites proved to be invaluable during my research.

The National Autistic Society: According to their website, they are the leading UK charity for people with autism (including Aspergers syndrome) and their families. There is a wealth of information to be found on their site. Keep up the good work guys!

Autism Society: US National society, helping and educating people about autism. The section 'Living with Autism' was very educational.

ARCA: The website for the Association for Research into Crimes against Art. There are a lot of interesting facts about international art crimes and also ways to help.

Strasbourg: The home of Genevieve, Colin and the gang. This is the official website of the tourist office. Spend some time looking through their photo gallery. It is a beautiful city!